How Many Users Can I Handle for 5 Euros?

When building an app, one of the biggest concerns is cost. Many people assume that in order to handle a growing user base, you need to invest in expensive cloud services like AWS. But what if I told you that for as little as 5 euros a month, you can support thousands of users with great performance? That’s exactly what I set out to discover.

The Experiment: Finding Affordable Power

I wanted to figure out how many users I could comfortably support using self-hosted setups on budget-friendly servers. The goal was simple: Can I run an app that handles a good amount of users, without breaking the bank?

Instead of going for expensive setups, I used servers from a provider called Hetzner, which charges based on usage, making it affordable with no hidden fees. I tested two popular backend platforms—Appwrite and Supabase—to see how they handled a typical eCommerce setup with products and user data.

Why Not AWS?

Let’s face it: AWS is complicated and often expensive. What starts off as a low-cost setup can quickly balloon into something that costs hundreds of euros per month. I wanted to avoid all of that and focus on a much simpler and cheaper solution.

How I Simulated Users

To test how many users a 5-euro server could handle, I simulated real-world eCommerce scenarios. Imagine your typical app user—logging in, viewing product listings, filtering results. I repeated this process thousands of times to see how much load the servers could take before slowing down.

The Surprising Results

What I found was pretty exciting! For just 5 euros a month, you can comfortably support over 2,000 users per day, with spikes of up to 20 users per minute. That’s more than enough for most early-stage apps or side projects.

And if you’re running something like a small eCommerce store, or even a MVP project, this means you don’t need to spend big bucks on cloud hosting. You can start with a simple self-hosted server and still provide your users with fast, reliable performance.

Appwrite vs. Supabase: Which One’s Better?

Both platforms offer fantastic features right out of the box, but Appwrite proved to be the real workhorse in these tests. It consistently handled more users with fewer resources, meaning you get better performance for the same cost.

While Supabase is also great (especially if you need specific features like SQL), it’s heavier on resources and will hit its limits faster if you’re pushing your server hard. If you’re bootstrapping and need something lightweight and efficient, Appwrite is the way to go.

Why Self-Hosting?

Self-hosting gives you a lot more control and freedom. You’re not bound by the limitations of a cloud provider’s free tier, and you can easily scale up when you need more power. Plus, the cost is straightforward: pay for the server, and that’s it.

In my case, using Hetzner’s Ampere servers—which are energy-efficient and inexpensive—I found that for as little as 5 euros per month, I could manage all the backend processes without any hiccups.

How Does This Compare to AWS?

To give you an idea, handling the same number of users on AWS could easily cost you 5 to 10 times more. And that’s just for basic performance—once you start scaling or adding more features, costs can spiral out of control.

In contrast, a self-hosted setup keeps things simple and affordable, and you don’t need to worry about sudden spikes in pricing.

Summary

If you’re starting a project, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to spend a lot on hosting right away. You can easily support thousands of users per day for just 5 euros with the right setup.

Using a self-hosted solution like Appwrite gives you a perfect balance of cost and performance, making it an ideal choice for anyone looking to bootstrap an app without compromising on quality. So, before you dive into expensive cloud services, try a simpler, more cost-effective approach. Your users (and your wallet) will thank you.

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Interested in testing it yourself? I’ve shared the full results and code on GitHub, so you can replicate the tests or adjust them to fit your own app’s needs. Check the original post: https://codigee.com/blog/appwrite-vs-supabase-cloud-vs-self-hosted-performance-comparison